EWING — Plans for the transportation hub and “destination area” meant to revitalize the abandoned General Motors plant and adjoining naval yard along Parkway Avenue may be ready for submittal to the township as early as this summer, according to the project’s developers.

With 115,000 square feet of proposed commercial space, the development has attracted “quite a few” inquiries from potential tenants, said Bob Calabro, a representative of development firm Lennar, which is handling the project.

“There’s been great exposure for this, and there’s so much potential,” he said today at a MIDJersey Chamber of Commerce meeting held to discuss the development plans. “We’re trying to accelerate to get the plans ready as soon as possible, but we should have it before the township by late summer or early fall.”

He said the firm is examining environmental regulations and potential issues that could come up over the course of construction.

Businesses from the opposite side of Parkway Avenue also are a crucial part of moving those plans along, Ewing resident and planner Chuck Latini said. He mentioned the stormwater management structures the adjacent properties would share and said township officials, along with representatives from Lennar, would meet with owners later this month.

“We don’t want this to be just be a ‘development on one side of the road’ project,” Latini said. “We want more of a boulevard-type atmosphere. This needs to work for everybody on the road.”

After more than a decade of planning, the idea for the 130-acre tract has grown to include 1,000 residential units — including 190 townhomes, 250 stacked townhomes,
25 live/work units, 460 apartment units and 75 mixed-living units — according to preliminary plans Lennar showed the township’s Redevelopment Agency earlier this year. Calabro added today that he expects the development will support 250 permanent jobs once it’s completed.

The potential of eventually housing a train station in the development has also been addressed, with a parking lot

and kiosk dedicated to that function drawn into the plans, although Latini and Calabro both acknowledged that would be a lengthy and costly process.

Still, the plan as a whole is moving Ewing in the right direction, Mayor Bert Steinmann said.

“We’ve had the ball sitting on that center line for quite a few years, and finally, we’re able to hike that ball,” he said of the development plans. “It’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel, but we need to keep moving along. Not just Ewing Township, but the region as a whole needs to be moving along, and this is the first step.”